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23 May 2011

The recent national election came and went with much fervour and debate in the press and online world. It is also the first time that many of us voted in our lives - for me it is the 2nd time. When the results were announced, it was a watershed win for the opposition and an awakening for the incumbent party.

While much of it was political talk, what can a believer take away from these historical moments? I share my few precious lessons learnt below.

I had my first up close encounters with the angst and perhaps clouded sense of reality of the voters. So many shocking slurs and attacks were made against the young PAP candidate while the other young opposition candidate got all the good comments and "likes". I observed that in the heat of things, mistakes were magnified and hardly forgiven. In the online FB pages, it is as if waves of negative comments were hurled and it is close to impossible to respond or even fight against them. I wonder if they were thinking rationally at that point? Where were all the "sandwiched" criticisms or constructive gracious comments that we were taught to give?

In times like these, it is a good thing to have a cooling day to reflect and then to vote wisely. For once, I wrestled with who to vote for - the incumbent party who seemed not to have done much for me a resident, or, the opposition party who is new to this area and to Singapore politics.

As a Christian, I have an obligation to the state to vote. I also have a duty to vote wisely for my nation and community good. There on that day fateful day, I did these with the benefit of thinking rationally and not following the impulses of the masses (In these polling campaign, I can sense the force of negativism against the incumbent. In a way its like the forces of darkness (if liken to spiritual warfare) zooming in onto the ruling party).

In the aftermath, the incumbent won again, but they promised to listen more to the people, and followed that up with swift action. In this regard, I'm glad that our heavenly Father is always listening to us. He does not need a general election poor result to wake up.